"After, however, having taken all the circumstances of the affair into consideration, which I have done most carefully," he resumed, "it has seemed to me, Mr. Brancker, that you would be much more comfortable, in time to come, and more at your ease in every way, if a situation were found for you elsewhere, where you would be altogether removed from the painful associations connected with your late sphere of labor and its surroundings, which cannot fail to cling to your memory as long as you live. In view of all this, I have much pleasure in informing you that I have been able to obtain for you a situation in a Bank in the West of England in which my half-cousin, Mr. Pencathlow, is a chief partner. Your new position will be somewhat more of a subordinate one than the one you have held with us, but with your industry and ability, you cannot fail to rise, and that rapidly. The salary, too, will be rather less than the one you have been in receipt of for some years past, but I am given to understand that----" "Pardon me, Mr. Avison," said John, with an unwonted break in his voice, as he bent forward and laid a hand heavily on the table, "but does all this mean that you are anxious to dispense with my services?" "I have not said so, Brancker, and I think you have no right to draw any such inference," responded the Banker, with a slight flushing of his sallow cheeks. "What I have done has been out of pure consideration for you and your interests." "I thank you, sir, for the kindly feeling which has prompted you to act as you have, but I am far from having any desire to break up my home, and leave Ashdown, where I have lived for a great part of my life, in order to settle in a strange place." "But consider the associations, Brancker; the very painful associations which this place cannot fail to have for you in time to come." "That they will be painful, I do not doubt, sir. Mr. Hazeldine and I were ever the best of friends, and there was no man in the world whom I respected more; but most of us have many painful things to bear as we go through life, and, in my case, this will merely be one more added to the number." "Mr. Avison mused for a few moments frowningly, then he said: "My allusions were not so much intended to apply to poor Hazeldine's death as to other matters. I was certainly under the impression that, after so terrible a charge had been laid at your door, and after having undergone the ignominy of being imprisoned and brought to trial, you would be grateful to anyone who was willing to assist you to find a home elsewhere."